I was sipping on strawberry milk this morning when I checked my e-mail and got this message from Nole:

Hi Alejandra,

Thanks so much for your submission! Keep an eye out for a post tomorrow (Friday) morning!

Best,

--Nole

What?!?! I was kind of shaking with excitement and scrambled to type "oh so beautiful...." on my url tab until the familiar link popped up. Click. Ahhh!!!! How exciting!!

A couple of days ago I decided to take some photos of my save the date. I planned on creating a post with a tutorial on exactly how I made my save the dates. Since I saved so much money and made the design really easily, I wanted to spread the word more. Back in October, I did my typical visit to Oh So Beautiful Paper and came across Avie's "Papel Picado" invitations. I was floored. That is EXACTLY the "style" I want. Latin, but a hint of retro, yet still vintage.

I opened up photoshop and one thing led to another. An hour later I had my Save the Date designed! If you own photoshop, you can recreate my SAME design! I used brushes for the birds AND the lace, so I will give you links of where I found these for free. The font was free too!

The envelopes were more "labor" intensive. They involve stamps, embossing powder, and a heating gun from Paper Source -- but so worth it! I have to credit my fiance Jose for the handwriting. Isn't he good?! I, on the other hand, don't have pretty handwriting whatsoever :) Sometimes I get lucky and make swirly ends when I'm trying to make it look "elegant" but turns out looking like my 3rd grade cursive. Plus, my fiance "practices" and I am a "just do it girl" which results into errors, scribbles, and just a bad idea overall.

Anyway, I'm so thankful for Nole's feature. Hopefully after my tutorial, brides on a budget can learn some photoshop tricks to design their own Save-the-Dates. Or try the embossing trick for their envelopes which completely transforms your design. If you have any q's or want to share ideas, feel free to e-mail me at alejandra@imaginaledesign.com -- I'd love to help!

And if you haven't already, read the post here and leave some love! Can't wait to share some helpful tips with y'all later!